The ITF Junior Tour landed in Canada last month, with Nicolas Arseneault and Emma Dong cleaning up on home soil by each winning multiple titles.
Around the globe, the Canadians acquitted themselves well by racking up the wins. As well, two Canadian teams book their places in competition finals later in the year.
In short, it was a big month for the Canadian juniors. Here is your monthly junior update presented by Har-Tru.
Junior Team Canada
In April, the qualifying rounds of the junior Billie Jean King Cup, junior Davis Cup, and ITF Junior World Tennis events took place.
Of the four events (Junior World Tennis has a boys and girls event), two Canadian squads advanced to the finals later in the year. The junior Billie Jean King Cup team, featuring the under-16 Canadian girls, got through, as did the U14 boys squad at the Junior World Tennis event.
Click here to read more about the team competitions.
Domestic Events
Over the last month, Canada played host to three ITF junior events.
J200 Woodbridge
The host nation was slow out of the gate in the first ITF junior event of the year held in Canada.
Only Nadia Lagaev was able to raise a trophy in Woodbridge, claiming the girls singles title with a win over American Nancy Lee in the final.
All of the other titles in Woodbridge were won by Americans.
J100 Burlington
Canadians cleaned up at the Burlington event, claiming three of the four titles.
Both singles finals were all-Canadian affairs, highlighted by the brotherly battle between Nicolas and Mikael Arseneault in the boys final, won by Nicolas. In the girls final, Emma Dong beat Anna Tabunshchyk for the title.
J100 Quebec City
Arseneault and Dong followed up their victories in Burlington with more wins in Quebec City. Dong in particular shone, winning both the girls singles and doubles titles.
Both Dong and Arseneault beat their doubles partners in the singles final. For the second event in a row, Nicolas beat his twin brother Mikael in the singles final. The twins paired up to reach the doubles final, where they lost to fellow Canadians Alec Marin and Loic Petrecca.
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While Andrea Taylor was beaten by Dong in the singles final, she teamed up with her singles conqueror to claim the doubles title, going back-to-back in doubles in Burlington and Quebec City.
Here is the full list of champions at the Canadian ITF Junior events over the last month (all Canadian unless otherwise noted):
| Boys Singles | Girls Singles | Boys Doubles | Girls Doubles | |
| J200 Woodbridge | Maxwell Exsted (USA) | Nadia Lagaev | Nikita Filin (USA)/ Matthew Forbes (USA) | Jessica Bernales (USA)/ Kate Fakih (USA) |
| J100 Burlington | Nicolas Arseneault | Emma Dong | Mark Krupkin (USA)/ Dylan Long (USA) | Anastasia Malysheva/ Andrea Taylor |
| J100 Quebec City | Nicolas Arseneault | Emma Dong | Alec Barin/ Loic Petrecca | Emma Dong/ Andrea Taylor |
ITF Results
There were tons of big results for the Canadians on the ITF circuit outside of Canada over the last month.
The best came at a J30 event in Saint-Francois, Guadeloupe, where Canadians won not only all four titles, but accounted for almost every spot in a final at the event.
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In the all-Canadian singles finals, Rafael Brown beat Jerry Han for the boys title, while Avery Alexander took down Laurence Demers in the girls final.
Brown and Han also teamed up in the doubles, reaching the final where they lost to Antoine Clevel and Antoine Genereux.
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Demers was also the runner-up in the girls doubles alongside Annika Lavoie, losing to Kiera Taylor and her Czech partner Valentina Valova. Valova was the only non-Canadian to reach a final in Saint-Francois.
Here is the full list of Canadians who reached finals at events outside of Canada over the last month (Titles in bold)
- Rafael Brown: J30 Saint-Francois boys singles champion, J30 Saint-Francois boys doubles runner-up (w/ Han)
- Avery Alexander: J30 Saint-Francois girls singles champion, J30 Montego Bay girls singles runner-up
- Kayla Lorrimer: J30 Bejar girls singles runner-up, J30 Bejar girls doubles champion
- Laurence Demers: J30 Saint-Francois girls singles runner-up, J30 Saint-Francois girls doubles runner-up (w/ Lavoie)
- Jerry Han: J30 Saint-Francois boys singles runner-up, J30 Saint-Francois boys doubles runner-up (w/ Brown)
- Amy Lu: J60 San Jose girls doubles champion
- Antoine Clavel: J30 Saint-Francois boys doubles champion (w/ Genereux)
- Antoine Genereux: J30 Saint-Francois boys doubles champion (w/ Clavel)
- Manveer Boparai: J60 Tlaxcala boys doubles champion
- Marylee Longpre: J30 Montego Bay girls doubles champion (w/ Thibault)
- Eve Thibault: J30 Montego Bay girls doubles champion (w/ Longpre)
- Kiera Taylor: J30 Saint-Francois girls doubles champion
- Jacey Tan: J30 Bridgetown girls singles champion
- Clemence Mercier: J100 Delray Beach girls doubles runner-up
- Annika Lavoie: J30 Saint-Francois girls doubles runner-up (w/ Demers)
- Sienna Miles: J30 Bridgetown girls doubles runner-up (w/ Tkachyk)
- Anya Tkachyk: J30 Bridgetown girls doubles runner-up (w/ Miles)
Rankings update
With his run of good form on home soil, Nicolas Arseneault is on the brink of cracking the Top 100 of the ITF junior rankings. In the most recent list on May 6, he jumped 18 spots up No. 107.
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Keegan Rice remains the top Canadian at No. 91.
Nadia Lagaev is hanging on to a Top 100 spot at No. 100 and is the top Canadian girl. After her wins in Burlington and Quebec City, Emma Dong has climbed 52 spots up to No. 143.
Check out the full ITF junior rankings here.
